The billionaire founder of Phones 4U has been given permission to create a £250million 'mega mansion' with an enormous underground extension to his two linked mansions.

John Caudwell - who is worth an estimated £1.5billion - has been given the go-ahead to build a 14,000sq ft 'iceberg' extension to his back-to-back Mayfair properties.

The two separate homes are already linked underground but the 61-year-old tycoon will put a swimming pool, sauna, salon, bar, games room and car park in the vast new extension.

Extension: John Caudwell has been given permission to build an extended 'bunker' to these two linked back-to-back Mayfair properties he owns

Tycoon: John Caudwell, pictured left with his partner Clare Johnson, was the co-founder of Phones 4U and sold his stake in the company for £1.5billion in 2006

Mr Caudwell, who sold his mobile
phone company in 2006, is a philanthropist and has said he is giving the
two properties a massive extension to increase their value and make a
fortune for charity when he dies.

The underground bunker will be about 180ft long, stretching
under each house and joining them beneath their gardens, which back on
to each other in Mayfair.

RELATED ARTICLES

Share this article

Share

The
result will be a massive single property of some 50,000 sq ft – a
normal town house is about 4,500 to 8,000 sq ft, while other mansions in
Mayfair are from 10,000 sq ft. The ‘iceberg’ extension alone will cover
14,000 sq ft.

Once
complete, the mega-mansion will have 12 bedrooms – there are five in
each house already and the plans include two more in the underground
extension.

Super home: John Caudwell wants to link these two properties he owns in Mayfair with an underground extension which is not visible in this image submitted to Westminster Council

Mayfair mansion: John Caudwell's two properties are already linked underground but he has now been given planning permission to extend them and create a super home

Redevelopment: A cross section of the smaller Mayfair property with the new basement kitchen underneath marked up in the plans submitted to the council

With property prices for super-prime homes in Mayfair at around £5,000 per sq ft, the finished home could be worth £250million.

Following a Westminster Council planning meeting on Tuesday night, Mr Caudwell was given permission to carry out the work.

He
said: 'I'm obviously delighted that the application has been
successful. This now presents me with the opportunity to create a
balanced and logically laid-out family home whilst restoring the
architectural heritage of the building and also incorporating modern-day
features and facilities.'

In the 1960s it was a members club and, according to its history, was frequented by ‘dubious gangland characters’, footballers and celebrities. It was bought by Prince Jefri, brother of the Sultan of Brunei, in 1992 for a reported £18million.

He spent millions decorating it and sold it to an investment group a decade later.

Mr Caudwell grew up in a working-class background in Stoke-on-Trent and was a second-hand car dealer before forming Phones4u, which he sold in 2006 for £1.5billion. He is thought to be Britain’s highest income-tax payer, personally contributing more than £200million over the past five years.

The annual number of iceberg
extension applications in Westminster has more than doubled from 79 in
2008/09 to 181 in 2011/12 and local government chiefs are planning a crackdown from next year.

Robert Davis, Conservative deputy leader of Westminster City Council, said: 'The
council has to make planning decisions based on its current policies,
and we are now consulting on changes to strengthen those policies to
manage large basements developments in the city.

'The
planning structure nationally means that this will take time, but
residents have asked us to tackle this issue and that is exactly what we
are doing.'

Super home: These photos sent to the council show a fireplace in a ground floor room in the property (left) and an oak-panelled entrance hall with a stone floor (right)

Another home: A Staffordshire mansion that Britain's biggest income tax payer John Caudwell owns alongside two Mayfair properties he is hoping to turn into one

Wealth: John Caudwell, 61, pictured with his Bentley, is seen here wearing a neck brace after he was injured during a violent robbery at his 16th century Staffordshire mansion in 2010. He was hit with an iron bar by the intruders who fled with cash and jewellery

Phone tycoon: Billionaire John Caudwell pictured in the 1990s with a selection of mobile phones which his company Phones4U had on sale at the time